THE DUKE SPIRIT ROAD BLOG
Cuts Across The Land is enjoying critical acclaim and the band has been featured on KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Ecclectic� and Indie 103.1, yet nothing compares to seeing the sultry Liela Moss (vocals) and her band-mates Luke Ford (guitar), Dan Higgins (guitar), Toby Butler (bass) and Olly Betts (drums) delivering what SPIN says is a “…sweaty mix of fuzzy riffs, smokey blues, and the band’s own brand of pop-infused soul that draws on the Jesus and Mary Chain and Spiritualized.� And Blender warns, “Get ready, bad boys: There’s a new femme fatale in town. Liela Moss…moans about mad love and certain death…her raw, husky delivery deliver(s) high drama….�
Get a preview of the band in action on their ‘films’ section www.dukespirit.com where the videos for “Lion Rip,� “Cuts Across The Land,� “Love Is An Unfamiliar Name,� and “Dark Is Light Enough� go someway to conveying their live energy and excitement.
23rd May (Toby Butler - bass) Paramount Theatre - Denver, Colorado:
The institutionalised fend for themselves. We're on the budget tour, money is tight, (as is our record company) so for the first week we have no tour manager. This is a big deal for a band! This means we have to organise shit for ourselves. We check ourselves into the airport (yes!), get on the right flight (yes!!), just about find our tour van in Denver (gulp), find the venue, play the show, drink beer, get paid, done.
So 4 weeks ago in Portland Oregon some piece/s of shit ripped off our equipment, but we're pretty much back to full strength again now. Swinging some nice new guitars, beating brand new drums, stamping on nasty sounding pedals. So thanks scum-bags, you don't keep the spirit down.
Through the magic of vicodin I'm playing with a recently acquired broken elbow - a product of vodka-induced moonwalking. Again, we roll on. The Kid (drums) is swapping his sticks for the wheel of the van - safe hands? Of course. Death By Sexy!
25th May (Toby Butler - bass) Granada Theatre - Dallas, Texas:
18 hours from Denver to Dallas, through Kansas (where jesus is the only phone network) probably doesn't seem a lot to many of you used to travelling in the US, but it is to us limeys. Moaning isn't something someone in a band (and a good one) should do too much of, but 18 hours in a small van is fucking boring. Luke got busted for speeding, which relieved the pain a little. Liela misunderstood the petrol gauge and we ran out on the freeway. There goes another IHOP!
Snow Patrol and their crew continue to extend their kindness to us, we're feeling well looked after. I guess i thought we were oddly matched when this tour was offered to us, whether or not their audience would be able to work out what the fuck we are, but..... both venues so far have been full when we play, and they are probably the most receptive crowds we've ever had. To be honest, we're all loving it.
Budget update: We are now down to one hotel room a night... good thing we get on! It's A Family Affair.
26th May (Dan Higgins - guitar) Stubbs BBQ - Austin, Texas:
I woke up in a hotel in Dallas in a strange electric orthopaedic bed set to extremely firm, with a hangover like a painful Stetson on my head. I felt like an Aztec sacrifice. Into the van and off we go and I’m fragile cargo at this point.
It’s always lovely to go to Austin whether you're playing or not; it’s something about the place, a certain outlook of the inhabitants, the little mockingbirds screaming dementedly absolutely everywhere. It feels like a holiday. The good people of Austin are always friendly and many of them are very, very talented…and it’s sunny. Bastards.. Only kidding.
We met two of the talented, Courtney and Leyla, photographing us and making us look like silk purses when we felt like sows ears. We got to Stubbs' Barbecue, tonight's venue. It’s a great outdoor venue and soon we are right at home in a kind of air-conditioned stone shack populated with poisonous spiders, as George, Snow Patrol's stage manager found out to his cost. One trip to the ER later and he's fine, superhuman apparently, and with a good story to take home.
We rocked our little arses off that evening, out in the open air. Another night ensued containing several of the following elements in no particular order: margaritas, a Supremes remix, paparazzi -style photography, and we are still down to one hotel room....
27th May (Olly Betts - drums) Verizon Wireless Theatre - Houston, Texas:
We do not have a problem. The Spirit train is rolling. We are all present and correct. No broken limbs, no traffic offences, no tour rashes, just sun burn and booze tans. It’s a shame to leave Austin behind, such a great place and people; having had the best breakfast so far at Magnolias we hit the road.
Arriving at the Verizon Theatre Houston just in time to set up and sound check, we grace the stage for longer tonight being the only support band. Our dulcet tones translate well across the “anorma dome�…it’s a good gig. Straight off stage, into the van to commence the mammoth journey to Birmingham, Alabama for our own show the next day. We don’t do days off. Day five ends at 3am somewhere In Louisiana at a motel twinned with the dodgy end of Kings Cross. It’s ok though, we have to be on the road again in four hours………..Roll Spirit Roll.
Memorial Sunday (Liela Moss - vocals) Bottletree - Birmingham, AL:
A beautiful twist of fate means we get a last minute call from Brian T down there in the south, wondering if we’d forfeit our day off and scoot on down to his and his great lady’s new venue. We all think this sounds sweet, so we floor it out of Houston and drive through most of the night to make sure we get there. A sleep in one of the most desperate motels so far (lady and men hookers hanging around in the car park getting picked up by muscular men in stained wife-beaters in trucks, a van that comes past the lobby every fifteen minutes to fetch people and carry them to the casino and a itty bitty spider in the bed sheets) means we get the hell out of Dodge very early…
We love today. It is one of those life-affirming moments where the people you meet are kindred spirits, and welcome you into their world like you were part of the family.
A faux stag’s head on the wall of Bottletree twinkles in all it’s glittery glory, sparkling in the long mirrored bar, ooh this place looks great! They have made a bottle-tree outside on the veranda, and we get to learn about that tradition of outsider-art, making pretty stuff out of everyday throwaway things, and treasuring what you have instead of despising what you have not.
We play hard and demented in the heat. Too hard perhaps, for the poor little amplifier blows a fuse it got so hot and bothered. And so we have an unannounced interval in the show – great for me because I get to wash my face with ice-cold water and cool the pipes a little. Then it’s back on for an al-la-bammy-bound head and ear-fuck.
We end the night in a hot-tub under the stars with our new fine southern friends and wonder how it came to pass that we should end up knowing such good rocking people so very far from home.
